Meanwhile...

Worldwide (Map) 
January 5, 2023 - 662,096,600 confirmed infections; 7,507,700 deaths
January 6, 2022 – 298,194,650 confirmed infections; 5,468,100 deaths
January 6, 2021 – 87,157,000 confirmed infections; 1,882,100 deaths

US (Map) 
January 5, 2023 - 101,043,100 confirmed infections; 1,095,225 deaths
January 6, 2022 – 57,826,000 confirmed infections; 823,359 deaths January 6, 2021 – 21,294,100 confirmed infections; 361,100 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
January 5, 2023 - 4,049,460 confirmed infections; 102,568 deaths
January 6, 2022 – 3,494,700 confirmed infections; 91,561 deaths January 6, 2021 – 1,150,000 confirmed infections; 30,525 deathsbr />
Post from:
January 6, 2022 – “Enough already!” 
January 6, 2021 – “Over-the-top whackidoodle-itude” 

News blues…

US Congress is at a standstill. It appears there’s no way to move beyond the whacky shenanigans of the whackidoodles. No Speaker of the House of Representatives – after at least 9 sessions of voting for a Speaker – and still no one and nothing accomplished!
Meanwhile…

… [recently] the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Covid-19 variant dashboard revealed a new dark horse that could soon sweep the field: XBB.1.5.
The CDC estimates that XBB.1.5 has more than doubled its share of the Covid-19 pie each week for the last four, rising from about 4% to 41% of new infections over the month of December. In the Northeast, the CDC estimates, XBB.1.5 is causing 75% of new cases.
“For a few months now, we haven’t seen a variant that’s taken off at that speed,” said Pavitra Roychoudhury, director of Covid-19 sequencing at the University of Washington School of Medicine’s virology lab.

Read “Omicron offshoot XBB.1.5 could drive new Covid-19 surge in US” 

***

Is China’s data ‘under-representing’ the true impact of its Covid outbreak?

The UN agency released data provided by the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a day after WHO officials met Chinese scientists. China has been reporting daily Covid deaths in single figures.
“We believe that the current numbers being published from China under-represent the true impact of the disease in terms of hospital admissions, in terms of ICU admissions, and particularly in terms of deaths.”
China has recorded only 22 Covid deaths since December and has dramatically narrowed the criteria for classifying such fatalities, meaning that Beijing’s own statistics about the unprecedented wave are now widely seen as not reflecting reality.

Read more >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
McCarthy (v)  (1:00 mins)
MAGA vs. MAGA  (0:56 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

On the eve of her second PET scan, Mary (diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma) got word that the PET scan equipment was out of order so her appointment had been rescheduled. It went from Wednesday January 4 to Friday, 13th.
Recall Mary had surgery on July 14 last year and proceeded to and completed her first set of 4 chemotherapy treatments on November 17. The results of her follow up CT scan on Dec 14 were troubling enough (no clear indication “nodules” were gone) that a follow up PET scan was ordered for January 4.
Now, we wait some more….
Meanwhile…
California is amid continuing flooding from yet another “atmospheric river” – with more on the way.

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:24am
Sunset: 5:04pm
More rain, rain, rain….

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:05am
Sunset: 7:03pm
More rain, rain, rain….

With all the rain, I continue to send letters with photos to local KZN road works departments to ensure the disastrous flooding the occurred December 29 does not happen again this year as the rains continue.
Getting effective action is like peeing into the wind: all that happens is more flooding.

United!

Worldwide (Map) 
December 22, 2022 – 655,145,823 confirmed infections; 6,671,946 deaths
December 22, 2021 – 277,088,800 confirmed infections; 5,376,100 deaths
December 24, 2020 – 78,674,530 confirmed infections; 1,730,000 deaths

US (Map) 
December 22, 2022 – 100,183,071 confirmed infections; 1,089,327deaths
December 22, 2021 – 51,537,000 confirmed infections; 812,100 deaths
December 24, 2020 – 18,455,660 confirmed infections; 326,100 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
December 22, 2022 – 4,046,986 confirmed infections; 102,568 deaths
December 22, 2021 – 3,353,110 confirmed infections; 90,587 deaths
December 24, 2020 – 974,260 confirmed infections; 25,660 deaths

Post from:
December 24, 2021 – “Pesky numbers"
December 24, 2020 – “Holiday madness" 

News blues…

Covid levels surge in San Francisco Bay Area wastewater. Is the next surge here?

What are the symptoms of an infection with BQ.1 and BQ.1.1? 

***

Cities across China scrambled to install hospital beds and build fever screening clinics on Tuesday as authorities reported five more deaths and international concern grew about Beijing's surprise decision to let the virus run free.

Read “China races to bolster health system as COVID surge sparks global concern” >>

***

A raging epidemic in China could be bad news for controlling the virus in the U.S., he and other experts said, because travelers will arrive sick and the chances of mutation increase anytime a virus infects a lot of people.

Read “COVID-19 is about to explode in China. What that could mean for the United States?” 

***

On war… and culture war
Ukraine President Zelensky arrives at the White House where he participates in a press conference with President Biden then addresses US Congress. 

***

The Lincoln Project:

We are united (Zelensky in US Congress) (2:00 mins)

Two meetings, a world of difference for democracy (0:45 mins) 
Uh oh, Donald  (0:44 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - December 20, 2022 (2:15 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - December 18, 2022  (2:57 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Way back in 1976, I visited the Dead Sea and floated in the ultra salty water. There was not much there then, few tourist amenities and fewer tourists. Today, the Dead Sea is dying. Beautiful, ominous photos show the impact as its water level drops and big sinkholes swallow whole tracts of land around it. 

Learn why this disaster is unfolding at the Middle East's iconic salt lake >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

As mentioned in the previous post, Mary and I had read the results of her recent scan but could not accurately decipher results. That is, the results we deciphered described several “areas of concern” – potentially active nodules. How could that be?
A discussion with the oncologist confirmed our fears: either the chemo had failed to flush what nodules remained after surgery or scar tissue in the lung affected/hid what was apparent. Of particular concern was a vascular bundle associated with lymph nodes behind the sternum. The oncologist had already contacted the surgeon and discussed the possibility of further surgical intervention in that area. His response? Too sensitive an area with too many blood vessels – also the reason he’d not addressed the area during initial surgery. And I suspect, the reason why he’d re-staged Mary’s diagnosis from Stage 2 to Stage 3 A.
What to do?
Inconclusive.
Next step?
Learn more with another PET scan.
That’s scheduled for Jan 4, 2023.
How to medically address the situation if, indeed, the chemo was insufficient to dissuade further growth?
Immunotherapy is an option.
Groan.

***

Given Meso Mary’s toxic contamination and my concern, these days I am hyperalert to all things asbestos and mesothelioma related. Here’s a view of the future, for India and Indians.
India banned asbestos mining in 1993, when the government stopped reissuing licenses, but it imports more of the toxic mineral than any other country. In 2021, India accounted for 44% of global imports, a 29% increase over 2020. Russia and Brazil are its key sources.
In India, “there’s almost no home or car that isn’t being built with asbestos as an ingredient…”

“The government is basically saying that Indian asbestos is poisonous, but Brazilian or Russian asbestos is not,” says Gopal Krishna, an occupational health researcher and founder of the Ban Asbestos Network of India. “It makes no sense.” India’s unmatched scale of exposure to asbestos means that in the coming decades more than 6 million people could have an asbestos-related disease, including more than 600,000 cancer cases, according to research published by Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). “It’s a ticking timebomb,” says Abhijeet Vasant Jadhav, lead author of the research. Asbestos is used in everything from cement to brake parts, says Krishna. “There’s almost no home or car in India that isn’t being built with asbestos as an ingredient. We are all exposed to it.”

Read “'We are all exposed to it’: the human face of India’s asbestos timebomb. Experts say country’s vulnerability to asbestos-related diseases is putting the health of millions of people at risk” >> 

***

Winter solstice and the US is cold!. The Bay Area is not as cold as many, most, areas across the US but it is still cold.
The good news? While it will be cold, even colder next month, we’re on the upswing. Spring is in the cards!

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:21am
Sunset: 4:54pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 4:56am
Sunset: 6:59pm

Never a dull moment

On war…
Ukrainians use phone app to alert military about incoming drone and missile attacks.

Ukraine has been subject to months of deadly long-range missile strikes, but the attacks have stepped up in the past month as Russia has fired hundreds of cheap, Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones into cities and at Ukraine’s infrastructure.
…
A simple mobile phone app has been developed by Ukrainian volunteers to allow civilians to report sightings of incoming Russian drones and missiles – and, it is hoped, increase the proportion shot down before they hit the ground.
The app, ePPO, relies on a phone’s GPS and compass, and a user only has to point their device in the direction of the incoming object and press a single button for it to send a location report to the country’s military.

Read more >>

***

The Lincoln Project:
Answer the question, Ron (0:50 mins)
Large Marge  (0:58 mins)
Funding Fascism  (0:57 mins)
House of Horrors  (0:56 mins)
Lip lickin’ liar  (0:40 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - October 25, 2022  (2:05 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Does the photo below not appear to show two exhausted swimmers taking a well-earned rest against an iceberg? Or perhaps a Jason deCaires Taylor  sculpture?
Rather, it is nature doing its thing in the far away ocean. Imagine all the other amazing natural feats we landlocked humans miss each moment.

 See more amazing photos >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Chemotherapy session three down the hatch. Well, almost. It’s all over but for the recovery from the session – including yet more drugs, this time to counter nausea. Mary returned from her post-chemo acupuncture session – to address nausea, too – and will lie low for the rest of the day. Best to not push too hard two days after poisons have been infused through one’s system.
The recent session followed the usual protocols although with the addition of infused Emend anti-nausea drug, instead of taking the pill form of Zyprexa. This change added extra time to the session. During the hours of 9am to 2pm, Mary took in more than 5 liters of liquid, from water to Emend to water and pemetrexed to water and cisplatin and yet more water to finish off. By the time she departed the oncology clinic water retention made her puffy from forehead to toes. Today, she’s still puffy though less than yesterday. Now she must contend with nausea.
Moreover, she must continue to imbibe at least two liters of water each day to ensure her kidneys continue to flush the poisonous meds.
Mesothelioma: never a dull moment.
The good news? Only one more session to go – at least that’s what we’re expecting. The post chemo sessions scan will confirm that (or not). Then, she’s free until the next scan in 6 months to track any resurgence.

Troublesome

News blues

Dr. Anthony Fauci warned about a pair of "pretty troublesome" Covid variants — omicron descendants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 — as the U.S. braces for a winter surge. 

Read more >> 

And,

People who reported experiencing side effects to the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines such as fever, chills or muscle pain tended to have a greater antibody response following vaccination, according to new research.
Having such symptoms after vaccination is associated with greater antibody responses compared with having only pain or rash at the injection site or no symptoms at all….
“In conclusion, these findings support reframing postvaccination symptoms as signals of vaccine effectiveness and reinforce guidelines for vaccine boosters in older adults,”

Read more >> 

A team of scientists affiliated with Duke University found that ivermectin does not meaningfully improve the recovery of people with mild to moderate Covid.
“These findings do not support the use of ivermectin in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19,” they concluded.
The FDA has warned people against taking the tablets for anything other than their approved use.
Read more >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Tyranny  (0:57 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

On plastics and the myth of recyclable plastics

Just 5% of plastic products are recycled in America and many common items just aren’t able to be recycled at all, according to a damning new study released by Greenpeace USA.
The study estimates the U.S. produced about 51 million tons of plastic waste in 2021, but just 2.4 million tons of that was reprocessed.
The data compiled by Greenpeace is even more bleak than that released by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2018. The government estimated at the time just 9% of all plastics had been recycled that year, with the remaining 91% winding up in landfills. (At the time much of the country’s plastic was shipped to China and considered recycled, even if it was dumped in a landfill anyways).
Shockingly, the research said no type of plastic packaging in America met the threshold needed to be considered “recyclable” promoted….

Read more >> 

Recycling plastic waste fails for a variety of reasons that Greenpeace boils down to: the impossibility of collection and sorting, the environmental toxicity, synthetic compositions and contamination, and a lack of economic feasibility.
There are thousands of different types of plastics with different compositions that cannot be recycled together, let alone sorted. Plastic recycling facilities are likely to catch on fire because plastic is flammable, and living near one poses a huge health risk—take Turkey, which became a new plastic waste export destination after China banned imports and saw an influx of EU waste expose workers and communities to new health risks. Plastics can also absorb toxic chemicals, further complicating recycling efforts and increasing their toxicity. On top of all this, recycled plastic costs more than new plastic because of the aforementioned factors encouraging companies to simply make more instead of pursuing alternatives.

Read more >> 

***

More than four months after devastating monsoon floods began in Pakistan, at least 1,500 people have died, and the waters that inundated nearly the entire country have yet to recede. This ongoing emergency is causing illness and communicable disease to spread, and these effects are likely to be much more deadly than the initial catastrophe. “The public health risks are worse, and the death toll could be much higher”....

Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Another foray into battling mesothelioma. Today, Mary's trip to the blood lab begins her third chemo session – and, we hope, her second to last treatment of this round. Why “this round”? Well, the unpleasant truth is, to date, there is no cure for mesothelioma. The asbestos fibers that stimulate, aka cause, the disease never are dissuaded: they simply regenerate. This, because indiscernible microfibers are ready, willing, and able to regrow. It’s the job of the patient and her medical team to stay ahread of new growth. This means that after this round of four sessions of chemo, Mary will undergo a scan to judge the chemo sessions’ effectiveness. If all appears clear in the scan, Mary will be free of scans for the next six months. If anything appears suspicious in the scan, the medical team will suggest next steps.
So, today, blood tests ascertain that Mary’s system is up to the task of another round. If any element of her blood suggests she’s above or below desired “measurements” the chemo session will be delayed until her blood levels are more “workable.” To date, Mary “feels fine” and is preparing for another several days of feeling under par.

“At least my chemo sessions are every three weeks. This gives me enough time to recover between bouts. And I do recover. Yes, my lung/chest feels wooden but I have full movement of my left arm. Indeed, I can almost forget the dire disease and prognosis for … well, minutes… at a time.” At that she chuckles warily and wearily and adds, “Perhaps one of these days, it’ll be forgetfulness for half-hourly bouts of time.”
I can attest to Mary’s fortitude. Yesterday, together, we added a layer of bottom shelves to a set of wooden shelves on my patio. Mary was an active  participant in adding this new layer that will house small pots of newly propagated succulents. We’ve added several more rarer-than-usual-for-us cacti and succulents. In general, our philosophy for such plants is “don’t pay money for what’s readily available.” Problem with that philosophy? Some cacti – for examples, Rebutia  - native to Bolivia and Argentina, and Lithops,  native to South Africa and Namibia. These beautiful plants are not, alas, not “readily available” except by purchase.

Costs of denialism?

Worldwide (Map) 
October 20, 2022 – 626,441,100 confirmed infections; 6,573,750 deaths
October 21, 2021 – 241,837,800 confirmed infections; 4,917,467 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 41,150,000 confirmed infections; 1,130.410 deaths

US (Map) 
October 20, 2022 - 97,085,250 confirmed infections; 1,066,600 deaths
October 21, 2021 – 45,161,400 confirmed infections; 729,500 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 8,333,595 confirmed infections; 222,100 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
October 20, 2022 - 4,024,555 confirmed infections; 102,246 deaths
October 21, 2021 – 2,917,300 confirmed infections; 88,674 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 708,360 confirmed infections; 18,750 deaths

Post from:
October 22, 2021 “Not much” 
October 21, 2020 “October updates” 

News blues

The imbalance in death rates among the nation’s racial and ethnic groups has been a defining part of the pandemic since the start. To see the pattern, The Washington Post analyzed every death during more than two years of the pandemic. Early in the crisis, the differing covid threat was evident in places such as Memphis and Fayette County. Deaths were concentrated in dense urban areas, where Black people died at several times the rate of White people.
….
Over time, the gap in deaths widened and narrowed but never disappeared — until mid-October 2021, when the nation’s pattern of covid mortality changed, with the rate of death among White Americans sometimes eclipsing other groups. .
A Post analysis of covid death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from April 2020 through this summer found the racial disparity vanished at the end of last year, becoming roughly equal. And at times during that same period, the overall age-adjusted death rate for White people slightly surpassed that of Black and Latino people.

Read more >> 

Gov. Gavin Newsom will end California's COVID-19 state of emergency in February 2023 and surrender the emergency powers he has held for over two years, the governor's office announced this week. What does this really mean?
Read more >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Political ads flood the airwaves as We the People get closer to a nailbiter election. (Each day as I read the news, I CANNOT believe that ANYONE would vote for ANY Republican “policies”. WTF?)
1849  (0:57 mins)
J. D. Vance is an Extremist  (0:56 mins)
Even Fox News gets it  (1:00 mins)
The Difference Between McMullin and Lee  (1:14 mins)
Mike Lee begs, Part 2 (0:55 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The SF Bay Area is experiencing wonderful Indian Summer weather. Additionally, it’s a pleasure to walk along the beach with Mary and more wonderful to hear her maturing perspective on the devastating form of cancer that afflicts her. In short, Mary finds the implications on her health – mesothelioma does not reverse, nor it is curable – a “kind of precious gift that allows me to truly understand and appreciate the gravitas that is life and living. Weird to say but I’m more fully enjoying each moment of my life. More weird to say, more people might face similar fates to allow their deeper apprecation of their lives - and the implications of wasting their time on over-emotional nonsense such as vaccine denialism, etcetera etcertera etcetera."
Thank you, Mary.

***

Mary suffers from toxic contamination of asbestos, and subsequent malignancies in her left lung with “some” implication of lymph nodes near her lower trachea. 

What is asbestos? A mineral mined that, among other uses, is an effective foil against excessive heat buildup. 

What’s its history and is it banned in the US? 

In a word, no, it is not banned. 

I’ll collect and share pertinent info on this mineral as it becomes available.
Asbestos history and background – and culpability
ProPublica: “Swimming in this stuff”: The U.S. never banned asbestos. These workers are paying the price. 

As other countries outlawed asbestos, workers in a New York plant were “swimming” in it. Now, in a fight against the chemical industry, the United States may finally ban the potent carcinogen. But help may come too late.

Read more >> 

NPR: They inhaled asbestos for decades on the job. Now, workers break their silence.

While the U.S. considers finally banning the carcinogen, a group of men have come forward, saying they were exposed repeatedly while working at a chemical plant in New York.

Read more >>

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:23am
Sunset: 6:24pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:15am
Sunset: 6:11pm

Month's beginning

Worldwide (Map) 
September 1, 2022 - 602,190,500 confirmed infections; 6.494,410 deaths
September 9, 2021 – 223,101,000 confirmed infections; 4,604,450 deaths
September 3, 2020 – 26,940,000 confirmed infections; 861,870 deaths

US (Map) 
September 1, 2022 - 94,535,300 confirmed infections; 1,046,267 deaths
September 9, 2021 – 40,601,000 confirmed infections; 654,600 deaths
September 3, 2020 – 6,114,000 confirmed infections; 185,710 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
Sepember 1, 2022 - 4,011,660 confirmed infections; 102,085 deaths
September 9, 2021 – 2,843,100 confirmed infections; 84,327 deaths
September 3, 2020 – 630,596 confirmed infections; 14,390 deaths

Post from September 9, 2021 – “Category of critter” 
September 3, 2020 – “Killing ‘em softly” 

Healthy planet, anyone?

Victory for the planet – and for South Africa’s Wild Coast (see images of this area >> ) South African Judge Mbenenge, penning the ruling to stop Shell Oil’s current exploration for oil and gas off the coast, said:

“Stripped of verbiage, the principal question is whether the grant of an exploration right for oil and gas, which has culminated in the need to conduct a seismic survey along the South East coast of South Africa, is lawful.”
He noted that the Eastern Cape coast is used by those who enjoy watersports and it was “steeped in customary rituals” of communities who subsist by fishing. It is also a haven for marine and bird life.
The seismic survey, the judge said, involved the discharge of pressurised air from airguns to generate sound waves, directed down to the seabed.
He said it was common cause that Impact Africa and Shell had not secured environmental authorisation to undertake the survey in terms of the National Environmental Management Act.

I suspect this battle is not over. Shell will be back, or BP or other, similar company will try the same. (This rulings is not the first against Shell’s attempts, nor Shell's first pushback ) For now, though, the Wild Coast will continue as wild - or wild-ish. It is, after all, well trammeled ground. Not yet by an oil company, though.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

It’s a new month, with new possibilities (some – such as chemotherapy – scary). Mary reports feelings of healing in her chest and her left lung.
That’s great news.
Today, we plan to attend the chemo class offered by the hospital’s oncology department.
Good times!

***

Change of seasons afoot...
SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 6:38am
Sunset: 7:38pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:13am
Sunset: 5:44pm

Month's end

News blues

The U.S. authorized its first update to COVID-19 vaccines, booster doses that target today’s most common omicron strain. Shots could begin within days.
…
Until now, COVID-19 vaccines have targeted the original coronavirus strain, even as wildly different mutants emerged. The new U.S. boosters are combination, or “bivalent,” shots. They contain half that original vaccine recipe and half protection against the newest omicron versions, called BA.4 and BA.5, that are considered the most contagious yet.

Read more >> 

***

Older adults, immunocompromised and the very young are paying the price for the mask-less freedom of many.

While much of US society has breathed a collective sigh of relief at no longer having to wear a mask in public, that freedom has placed people who are immunocompromised at risk, such as medical director of the infectious disease program at University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Dr Jeannina Smith’s patients. Nor are they the only ones. Older adults, the very young and those with long Covid are at greater risk too. So while for many Americans the pandemic increasingly feels over, for others – often the most vulnerable – it rages on.
As Smith puts it, “What troubles me as an infectious disease specialist with an interest in public health is the abandonment of the idea that public health exists to protect the most vulnerable.”

Read more >> 

***

On war and culture war
Highly recommended article, “Is it Fascism? Is it Socialism? Words mean things” >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Tough on crime  (0:57 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - August 30, 2022  (2:20 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Labor Day - September 5 - is summer's official end. 

This year, September will be the hardest month Mary may ever experience as she begins chemotherapy. 

Tomorrow, September 1, she attends a pre-chemo class to learn about the process and what she might expect and experience. I'll attend that class with her.
September 9 she accepts an injection of a large dose of Vitamin B, to boost her system in preparation for her first dose of chemo on September 15. After that, it's anohter dose every three weeks for four doses.
I'll be with her every step of the gruelling way.

***

Preparing for ultra-hot weather here in California.
July last year, I spent 14 days on my boat in the Sacramento Delta in quarantine for Covid after returning from South Africa. (Read post “Launching”) During that time, temperatures reached 111 degrees Fahrenheit.
This week, temperatures around California will reach similar heights.
Luckily, the inner bay, my neck of the woods, will hover around the low 80s. 

Sigh of relief.

Evan as the temperatures soar in California, Kwa Zulu Natal experiences low overnight temperatures, down to freezing in some areas.
The seasons are changing, too.
SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 6:39am
Sunset: 7:39pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:15am
Sunset: 5:44pm

Giving thanks

News blues

Set up to fail? Does the fall booster plan targeting Omicron have a “fatal paradox”? >> 

***

On war and culture war
I’ve made no secret of, nor apologies for, my antipathy towards The Donald (Donald Trump, senior – and, to be honest, DT junior, too). Moreover, I’m heartily sick of the man and his antics – from before, during, and since his so-called presidency. My antipathy toward him has neither increased nor decreased with his inappropriate secreting of highly classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. The man is a wily, cunning, greedy, self-centered user.
And, distressingly, he could – likely won’t but could – get another run for another presidential term. What might that look like? Well, the former president and his allies have explained their plans quite clearly >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Intruder (1:37 mins)

The list (1:00 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Info shared as a heads-up and not as a downer…. An underlying contention of this Covid-related blog is: we humans can (likely will) but must not continue business as usual vis-à-vis competently addressing the fragility and complexity of our planet. We know yet we refuse to act on knowledge, that, as we shrink our global wilderness areas and expand “development” and urbanization we endanger all life.
For example, Pakistan and South Asia currently suffer devastating climate change-related flooding, so does US's Mississippi. Meanwhile, California, too, suffers insidious climate change-exacerbated disease. Valley fever, or coccidioidomycosis, can be contracted simply by breathing California’s air .

***

I adore hummingbirds and regularly provide my neighborhood’s hummingbirds sustenance via sugar-water feeders. As anyone knows who provides such food stations, hummingbirds can be aggressive towards other hummingbirds. Why is this, you wonder? For insight, read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Mary reports her lung and chest continue to improve, that she’s modifying her tendency to move quickly by taking it slow, particularly moving from sitting to standing. “Becoming light-headed each time I stand reminds me that slow is beautiful, too.” 

Today, over early morning coffee – she drinks it cold now, something new in the last month – Mary said, “I’m so proud of my body. I’ve tried to take care of it over my lifetime and, yes, mesothelioma might kill me – eventually – in the meantime my body is doing an amazing job of recovering from a drastic and invasive surgery. I thank it for its long years of optimal service.” 

Lovely.
(Reminder, surgeon’s photo of the “gunk” removed from the pleura – lining – of Mary’s left lung.  )

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 6:38am
Sunset: 7:41pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:16am
Sunset: 5:44pm

Cooking with gas

News blues

Let’s hear it for genetics – the kind allow some people resistance from infection, from HIV to coronavirus >> 
Then there’s the opposite news: how quickly other people are infected after exposure to BA.5.
A new study reveals the average time it takes between infection and symptoms for recent COVID variants — and it's pretty fast >> 

***

On culture, not war
Covid-19 lockdown and resultant health cautions shut down South Africa’s iconic and world-renowned Comrades Marathon. After two years with no race – the only other time was during World War II, from 1941 to 1945 - the grueling ultramarathon resumed this year. And, the story of this year’s winner is a winner: South Africa’s Tete Dijana, who works as a security guard, won the men’s leg of the race.
Read the uplifting story >> 
For more on the Comrades Marathon, read post “Something these is doesn’t love a wall” 

The Lincoln Project:
We, the People  (1:37 mins)
Poser  (0:28 mins)
Kansas  (0:40 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Let them eat cake? (Backstory)
As prices rise beyond the ability of many British families to pay – thank you, Brexit! – too many British children don’t have enough to eat.
This due, partly, to the extreme rise in the price of natural gas and electricity.
Russians, meanwhile, at a time when it has sharply cut natural gas deliveries to the European Union, gets rid of its excess natural gas by flaring large volumes into the atmosphere near the Finnish border.
Humans! What to say?

Analysts from Rystad, an energy consultancy based in Norway, described [this action] as an environmental disaster and estimated the amount of gas being burned off into the atmosphere was equivalent to about 0.5% of daily EU needs.
…
Rystad analysts wrote: "Exact flaring volumes levels are hard to quantify but are believed to be at levels of around 4.34 million cubic meters per day. This equates to 1.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) on an annualized basis and is equal to around 0.5% of the EU's gas demand needs."
…
Professor Esa Vakkilainen at the LUT University, Lappeenranta, said Gazprom may have been burning as much as 1,000 euros worth of gas per hour for the past two months, while flaring was damaging the atmosphere.
"So this is also a big environmental problem, especially for the North Pole area where this soot has definitely an effect on global warming," he said.

Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Mary, a model for future mesothelioma suffers (yes, unfortunately, right now, people, unbeknownst to them, have this fatally toxic environmental disease) has weaned herself off the oxycodone drug. She was unusually fatigued her first day off the drug, but quickly regrouped. Yesterday she was in the kitchen cooking up an experimental mashed potato crust veggie pie, potato cakes (for aloo tikki and chana masala), and bolognaise sauce for spaghetti. All this to freeze for quickie meals once she begins chemo in just 16 days. (We’re optimistic she’ll want to eat during that time.)
Mary reports feeling “pretty good,” as if she can “feel her chest again – and that “the boxy feeling” in her chest "lessens each day.”
The other good news? Mary emailed her surgeon photos of her healing scars (one about 15 inches long, the other that, post-surgery, accommodated four draining tubes – about 6 inches long) and asked when she might start swimming again. 

She’d asked the same question some time back and he’d said, “in about six weeks.”
At the end of her sixth week, she repeated the question. This time he said, “go for it.”
The new bathing suit she ordered arrived yesterday. Unlike her trim Speedo, this one has shorts and a long-sleeved shirt.
“I want to avoid as much as possible the initial shock of cold to my now-vulnerable system. A wet suit likely wouldn’t give me my desired range of motion for swimming. Not sure how this suit will work out. I’ll probably quickly lose my shorts but it’s worth a try.”
I agree: definitely worth a try.
So far, today is typically foggy. Once the fog burns off, we’ll approach the pool.

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 6:37am
Sunset: 7:42pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:17am
Sunset: 5:43pm

Upstaged

Worldwide (Map) 
August 25,2022 - 598,770,100 confirmed infections; 6,472,475 deaths
August 26, 2021 – 213,854,000 confirmed infections; 4,463,000 deaths
August 27,2020 – 24,206,820 confirmed infections; 826,59 deaths
US (Map) 
August 25,2022 - 93,930,250 confirmed infections; 1,042,470 deaths
August 26, 2021 – 38,222,000 confirmed infections; 632,300 deaths
August 27, 2020 – 5,824,200 confirmed infections; 179,756 deaths
SA (Coronavirus portal) 
August 25,2022 - 4,010460 confirmed infections; 102,085 deaths
August 26, 2021 – 2,722,205 confirmed infections; 80,470 deaths
August 27, 2020 – 615,700 confirmed infections; 13,502 deaths
Posts from:
August 26, 2020, “Forever?” 
August 27, 2020, “Relief!” 

News blues

White House COVID coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha's predicted this week that newly updated COVID-19 boosters tailored to target a dominant strain of the virus will be available in the next three weeks… that is, assuming the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention work through their processes for authorization ….
Read more >> 

***

On war and culture war

Six months of war in Ukraine – photos >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Last week in the Republican Party - August 23, 2022  (2:20 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

During yesterday’s video conference with Mary’s oncologist, we learned Mary has been “re-staged.” Staging is the oncological description of how far along is a case of cancer (stage 4 is “final”).
Initially, Mary had been staged at “late stage 1, early stage 2.”
Nice. Right?
It crossed my mind that “late stage 1, early stage 2” was “lucky”, given that Mary’s meso had likely started “decades ago.” “Decades” is the described longevity of mesothelioma before it is discovered in the unlucky victim’s body. (See post “Not a week, a lifetime!” for details and photos of surgical scrapings from Mary’s lungs.) 

My thinking: if the disease is decades old, how come it’s been spreading so inefficiently? Well, some questions, I told myself, have no easy answers. I thanked the gods that Mary was “super lucky”: her lymph nodes showed no sign of metastasizing.
Yesterday’s conversation with the oncologist, however, revealed that “mid-chest” lymph nodes suggested “some involvement”. The surgeon and oncologist – and biopsy – re-staged Mary to Stage 3 A.
Hmmmm.
Bummer.
Given this new prognosis, Mary could, along with chemotherapy, opt for radiation therapy – highly targeted radiation aimed at the lymph.
Mary’s first take? Thanks, but no thanks to radiation therapy: the action is too close to her heart, spine, and lungs.
Based on further detailed information, she’s open to reevaluating this initial decision but for now, nope.
Long story short: Mary will begin chemo – two chemo meds, cisplatin and pemetrexed – when the oncology department can schedule her - perhaps another 3 weeks.
Outpatient treatment requires intravenous infusion – hopefully, no need for a central or PICC line, nor a portacath. Mary has good veins – protruding – so we’re hoping one of them will suffice every three weeks.
She’ll stick around the oncology setting after infusion for a couple of hours to monitor any reaction to treatment. After that, she’ll return home.
This treatment continues for four to six sessions every three weeks.
The list of side effects from this chemo cocktail are not insignificant.
The oncologist reports Mary won’t lose her hair. Dr Internet’s link, above, suggests she will. Time will tell. Hair is the least of Mary’s worries. Far more concerning is the statistic that 2 percent of chemo patients cannot take the treatment and will succumb – that is, die.
No prob. Mary has already worked with an estate lawyer.... 

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 6:34am
Sunset: 7:48pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:22am
Sunset: 5:41pm

"Without fear of favor"

On war and culture war

I, like many Americans, have watched and wondered about Merrick Garland since his very human and touching acceptance speech for the role of US Attorney General. Since then, however, given all the b*s*t put out by Trump and the Trumpies, I’ve wondered what on earth was AG Garland doing? Or not doing? Was he asleep at the wheel? Was he terrified of raising his head above the parapets?
Turns out the guy was beavering away on minute details to implement a warrant to search Mar-a-Lago.
Woo hoo! My hero! A guy in the position of US AG requires cajones. Up until yesterday, Garland’s cajones were tidily tucked away. Now? The little guy displays big cajones!
You go, Garland! Here’s a straight-forward explanation of what’s going on in the US these days and what it takes to maintain a civil society. 

Watch and listen, ‘An Epic Showdown Between Rule Of Law And Law Of Power' >>  (8:00 mins)

***

Life imitates art… or is it art imitates life? No matter. It’s kinda art – and life… enjoy >>

And, birds, in conjuction with humans, create art >>

Healthy planet, anyone?

I live on the beach on the western side of a small island on the east side of San Francisco Bay. It’s a gorgeous spot (see short video on recent post ). We 7-plus million residents of this area face dramatic sea level rise.
Each day, some 390 billion gallons of water pass through a natural “opening” that is less than 90 feet/27.5 meters wide into the inner bay. Plus, more water from the interior – the rivers of the Sacramento Delta, for example. That’s a lot of water through a narrow gap. How, I wonder, will sea level rise affect the Pacific Ocean side and the inner bay side?
Until recently I figured engineers would create some sort of tidal barrier a la Venice  or the Thames.
I’m not sure of shipping traffic into Venice (mostly cruise ships?) or to London (like the Bay Area weighted towards trade?) but heavy shipping traffic into San Francisco Bay, to the Port of Oakland, for example, would be adversely affected by such a barrier. (Interesting Covid-realted info on shipping in the bay)
Enter creative thinking on the subject of barriers to thwart flooding of existing infrastructure: the Billion Oyster Project

The non-profit [Billion Oyster Project] hopes to restore 1 billion oysters to New York Harbor by 2035, in an effort to improve the area’s flood resiliency.
The organization also works with Living Breakwater, a nature-based green infrastructure in the works along the Staten Island coastline, to cultivate the region’s shellfish habitat. Overseen by New York state governor’s office of storm recovery, this $107m effort to mitigate storm surges through living barriers has installed two breakwaters – a series of rock piles that blunt the impact of waves – off the borough’s coast. A total of eight breakwaters are planned.

Read more >> 

Perhaps now that Prez Biden has successfully begun with at least one plan, the Inflation Reduction Act  to address climate change, more creative ideas such as Billion Oyster Project will see fruition. “Thoughts and prayers….”

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Healing is a series of good days and bad days. Yesterday was a good day. Mary and I went walking along the beach and chatted with a woman “walking” her young parrot. Well, she walked and her bird rode upon her hand and wrist. We encountered them after the bird and the bird lover engaged a garden sprinkler. The bird thoroughly enjoyed fluffing its feathers and spritzing under the sprinkler mist. Mary and I watched fascinated as the bird clung to the woman’s hand held under the misty water and fluttered its wings and feathers. The bird appeared ecstatic.
Afterward, the woman encouraged the parrot to “step up” onto Mary’s arm. Close up, it was a gorgeous creature. This iPhone camera photo hardly does justice to the speckles of turquoise area the creature’s head and neck….

***

Mary and I participated in our second Zoom support group for those struggling or those supporting those struggling with mesothelioma. It included about a dozen people.
Mary and I share an existential view that slivers of humor exist in most situations, indeed, that humor heals. Alas, this point of view is scarce in the meso world. Yes, this is a horrible disease, made more horrible in that it derives from working – making a living – using toxic materials that manufacturers KNEW was toxic yet continued to sell. The worse kind of profit over human lives.
There are many forms of meso. Mary may or may not have the worst form; we’re babes in the mesothelioma woods. So far, we agree that suffering with peritoneal meso  – malignancies in the lining of the abdomen – appear to be a worse form.
Mary says, “At least my meso is confined to one lung… and the surgeon scraped out all but the tiniest bits and pieces.” (Pic of what surgeon removed from Mary’s lung.) Scraping all the bits and pieces from the lining of the abdomen seems a greater challenge.”
Nevertheless, Mary and I agree that one factor that appears missing from these meso online gatherings is humor. Yes, meso sufferers face daunting challenges. Yes, everyone has a personal trajectory to make peace with one’s diagnosis. Yes, maybe Mary and I have, so far, only encountered the online gatherings of people yet to find the humor in their situation. Or, yes, we’re just ignorant brats who refuse to face up to our new reality and deflect with humor.
We agree with, say, Joan Rivers: “Life goes by fast. Enjoy it. Calm down. It’s all funny.”
Scott Weems, a cognitive neuroscientist and author, said  “My first thought when I think about humour is it’s a great way for us to have evolved so we don’t have to hit each other with sticks.”
George Burns said, “"I think when humor has a basic honesty, you can use it all your life.” 
I could go on quoting well-known comedians but why? What counts is how you experience humor/humour in your life. I maintain that cracking a joke here and there about one’s own experience is healthy and, indeed, funny and healing.
Try it. You may like it.
Mary and I understand that people afflicted with an incurable disease might find humor misplaced, unkind, and inappropriate. We also agree that the support groups that do not display forms of humor are not for us.
What to do?
That is the question.

Let it rain...

News blues

Despite wildfires making their “own weather”, today, San Francisco Bay Area has a light sprinkling of rain. Are the two related? Who knows? In the meantime, let’s enjoy the sprinkles. Read more >> 

***

Every person and every case of covid is unique with no hard-and-fast rule for how sick a person will get or how long a person remains infectious. These guidelines offer a general framework, but patients should consider their different circumstances, priorities and resources to assess risk. 

***

The mesothelioma community is large, tight, caring, and constantly toiling away in the background. Once a diagnosis of mesothelioma is confirmed, the “meso community” gets involved with free materials, free advocacy, legal advice and support, free online seminars – and a library full of free publications, from recipe books to more techno-medico information on types of meso, meso care facilities, the latest on chemo and/or immunotherapy, etc. This community, one quickly discovers, is large, diverse, helpful, and “on the ball.”
As Mary’s primary at-home care giver, I get involved wherever I can to ensure Mary – and I – access whatever information we can to address her long-term needs. (More below.)

On war and culture war

Ukrainian war-art exhibition arrives in Brussels >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Weekend (0:37 mins)
The Boss  (1:47 mins)
Meidas Touch: Texas Paul EXPOSES how Trump is Exploiting Ex-Wife Ivana’s Death for Profit  (3:37 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Mary has been doing well with the meds. She is concerned (so am I) about the oxycodone. The dosage was 10mg immediately after surgery and dropped down to 5mg before she returned home. We maintained the 5mg dose every 4 to 5 hours until last night when we implemented 5mg every 6 hours. This is proving exhausting. That extra hour or so between dosage is, Mary reports (and I see) very challenging. Today, instead of up-an-at-‘em Mary, I see slow moving, short-of-breath, and pain scrunched Mary. 

She’s not her usual self, ready to take on the day. Rather, she’s staying in bed Mary, not hungry Mary, unwilling to engage in protracted conversations Mary. 

She’s also determined Mary. “I’ve gone this far with cutting back the dosage – and I've extended the time between dosages. Why would I stop doing that now? Pain is to be expected. I’ve had my left lung scraped and bruised, banged and bashed. That hurts. Drugs help, but not enough. Let me alone for now. I can manage.”
What can I do but keep an eye on her and let her manage her health her way?

But, oh, it hurts to see her hurt.    

Oh, the irony

© Dave Granlund, USA Today

Today, US Independence Day 2022, our posts become more complex. We’ll continue sharing the back-and-forth of the Covid pandemic while also focusing on another aspect of the ongoing degradation of our planet: toxic contamination. Specifically, we’ll follow the effect of toxic contamination on one human being.

To back up: Regular readers understand this blog’s fundamental assertion about the Covid pandemic: shrinking wilderness and environmental destruction equate with increasing risks of pathogenic spillover from animals to people >> 
But what of other contaminants around us?
What of the companies that know/knew their products are/were toxic, yet continue to pedal those products to unwary customers?
Stay tuned.

News blues

On the Covid front: Stay safe this Independence Day – as Covid presents We the People yet another, yet more contagious variant >> 

***

Meet Meso Mary and “wat-the-kek”
I met Mary, my bestie, in my first week of high school. Like me, she’s a South African transplant living in California.
A month ago, Mary complained that her hip was sore. Generally not a fan of what she calls “trivial pursuits” – including “unnecessary medicine” – Mary took my advice (she called it “nagging”) and visited her personal doctor to request an x-ray. During her appointment, May 27, 2022, Mary mentioned that her usual yoga poses – including downward facing dog and the cat – made her cough, “just short, dry coughs but it’s new….”

He said, “Since you’ll be there for hip and spine x-rays, I’ll order a couple of chest x-rays, too.”
A day after the x-rays, Mary took a phone call from the hospital’s Chief of Surgery who said, “Your chest x-rays show anomalies. Let’s go ahead and order another round.”
The Chief called again after the second set. “The results of your recent scan show nodules on the pleura, the lining of your left lung. You also have fluid buildup. Let’s biopsy the large nodule and perform a pleurocentesis" [aka thoracentesis or pleural effusion].
He asked, “You’re not feeling discomfort or pain in your chest, shortness of breath?” 

Nope, Mary reported she felt fine, well, except for the pulled muscle across her left shoulder blade… “from swimming too much - or not swimming enough,” she laughed.
A day later, the Chief called again: the biopsy indicated malignancies, “likely a form of lymphoma. A small chance it could be mesothelioma although that’s so rare, I doubt it.”
“So rare” or not, two days later, Mary was diagnosed with epithelial mesothelioma.
The subsequent PET scan indicated no metastasizes – no cancerous nodules infesting other organs.
Oh, the irony.
Over decades, both Mary and I have engaged what we call World War against Toxic Contamination - Environment and Creatures, WWaTCEC or, as we say, “what-the-kek.” (No, this is not a non-profit or money/donation-responsive agency; it’s our small inside “joke” as we engage the world’s garbage - of all sorts.) 

Mary. A healthy, intelligent woman, unflinchingly committed-to-the-planet’s-health, exercises, eats nutritious foods, recycles plastics and junk (even as she knows she’s “wishcycling” since 85% of single-use plastic items isn’t actually recycled ) has incurable lung cancer due to the toxic and wide-spread material, asbestos.
Mary has agreed to share her journey here, with me at the keyboard.
Together, we’ve progress from “WTF?” to “Let’s fight like hell to root out the origin of this disease in your lungs. We’ll fight even more fiercely than we’re fought other “wat-the-kek” skirmishes!
Mary’s up for it. 

Her fighting name: Meso Mary.

***

The Lincoln Project: Our country  (0:57 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

What to know about asbestos and asbestos exposure:

Asbestos are fibrous, naturally occurring hydrated silicates that have long been mined and used for their fire-retardant and insulating properties as construction materials. Asbestos can be found in amphibole and serpentine forms..[with] … amphibole fibres originally believed to pose less risk, but these fibres were then linked to increased rates of mesothelioma .

Dr. Montague Murray first recognized the negative health effects of asbestos in 1899. However, dust control legislation for mines was not enacted in North America until 1971. In the intermediate years, mining and use of asbestos increased dramatically by 120-fold, peaking upon the enaction of legislation in 1971, and decreasing exponentially until the present. The current decreases in the rate of mining are due to public health concerns and to the progressively more restrictive standards placed upon the level of asbestos dust allowed in mines, from 5 fibres/cm3 in 1971 to 1 fibres/cm3 at present. Although the global levels of asbestos mined have decreased significantly, Canada continues to be one of the world’s leading producers. 2.4 × 105 tonnes were mined in Canada in 2003, which accounted for much of the world’s production of asbestos. Read more >> 
… 

South Africa and asbestos:
Although South Africa officially banned the use, processing and manufacturing of asbestos-containing products in 2008, past exposures from decades ago eventually raised the country’s incidence of mesothelioma to one of the highest rates in the world.
Out of the six types of asbestos minerals used commercially, South Africa has mined three on a large scale: amosite, chrysotile and crocidolite. While South Africa has used asbestos domestically for a variety of different purposes, the vast majority of its mined reserves were exported to other countries.
South Africa was the third largest asbestos producer in the 1970s, behind Canada and the USSR. The nation was once a global leader in the production of crocidolite and amosite, supplying approximately 97 percent of the world’s crocidolite and practically all of the world’s amosite.
The asbestos mining industry in South Africa reached its peak in 1977 when it employed 20,000 miners and achieved an output of 380,000 tons. Exports began to decline soon after, as evidence of serious health complications prompted countries around the world to enact restrictive legislation on asbestos use.
Between 1910 and 2002, South Africa mined more than 10 million tons of asbestos. The last of the nation’s asbestos mines ceased production in 2001 and closed down the following year. South Africa outlawed all types of asbestos by 2008, but the once-lucrative industry has left the environment polluted. Asbestos exposure risks continue to threaten the well-being of South Africans to this day. Read more >> 

As we’re learning, mesothelioma is the result of asbestos exposure, with some people more prone. Exposure can happen from repeated use of asbestos -for example from asbestos-contaminated consumer products such as talc. (Looking at you, Johnson & Johnson.) Asbestos in the workplace, homes, schools, military structures and naval ships also leads to dangerous exposure. Mesothelioma cancer develops decades after asbestos exposure occurs because it takes time for asbestos fibers to cause the damage that leads to cancer.
How Mesothelioma Develops

• A person inhales or swallows microscopic airborne asbestos fibers.
• The asbestos fibers become lodged in the lining of the lungs, abdomen, or heart.
• Embedded fibers damage mesothelial cells and cause inflammation.
• Over time, tumors form on the damaged mesothelium, leading to mesothelioma.

People most at risk of developing mesothelioma cancer handled asbestos for a prolonged period or were exposed to large amounts of occupational asbestos. Secondhand exposure is also common, especially among the spouses and children of people who worked with asbestos.

Welcome to the  journey....

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I mentioned to a friend my daily walk on the beach and my admiration for local flocks of pelicans. My friend responded with this:

A wonderful bird is the Pelican.
His beak can hold more than his belly can.
He can hold in his beak
Enough food for a week!
But I'll be darned if I know how the hellican?”
                   ― Dixon Lanier Merritt

I decided to orate these magnificent lines to my feathered friends while they're snacking on edibles carried in on the flow tide.
Alas, nary a pelican, not a single one, on the water or roosting on the pier.
Likely because it’s 4th July holiday and too many people on the beach. Or the man with the baritone voice singing Star Spangled Banner at 7:30am scared them off. 

It’s highly unlikely they took off because word got out that a Crazy Lady aimed poetic intentions their way….  

Right?